Rock Paper Robot: You Lose, Every Time

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Rock Paper Robot: You Lose, Every Time

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a robot that cheats at rock-paper-scissors by detecting the gesture you’re about to throw. It's the automated equivalent of your jerk friend hesitating a moment before committing to their move — except that it happens at superhuman speed.

R-P-S is a great casual decision-maker. But the game only works if you and your opponent reveal your choices at the same time. Here, the robot perceives and acts faster than the human eye; it’s onto you as soon as your hand begins to form a shape. By the time you’ve landed your move, it’s already countered with the winning one.

It's a neat AI tech demo, but it also holds an important parable for how to think about intelligence. Rock-paper-scissors is a trivial game, and yet we've only decided to focus our energy on it a decade aftercracking chess.

Chess used to be the brass ring of AI research, but projects like the R-P-S robot point to a different kind of intelligence — a physical kind. We’re used to thinking about intelligence in terms of brains versus brawn, but as it turns out, making machines that can exercise their muscles takes a lot of smarts, too.

As more digital things cross over into the physical world, it’s that physical intelligence — the ability to move and perceive in space — that’s going to really make the difference.